Chapter 9 Chapter nine
I walked into my apartment, more dazed in my head with the excess of the night. The conference, the humiliation in public and all was a haze. The one thing that I could sense was the tightness in my chest, the suffocating weight of defeat bearing down on me. My kingdom is going to be in shambles if care isn't taken .
I walked into the living area, I stood still in shock.
Serena.
She was sitting at the table, her eyes bright but guarded. Food already out on the table, a wispy cloud of steam hovering over the plates, and yet I couldn't help but wonder how I'd gotten it all wrong. How I'd pushed her away when all she ever did was love me, even in the chaos.
I stood there for a moment, my throat constricted, too shocked to talk. She looked at me, as if waiting for me to come out of it.
Finally, she spoke.
"Are you going to come and sit with me, or are you going to just stand there and stare at me like you've seen a ghost?"
I didn't shift, just stood there stiff, stuck in between losing everything. Too many specters tonight, specters which I couldn't shake off. Then I pulled myself together.
"No," I said, the words feeling raw. "I think we should talk first."
She did not argue, did not push. She just put down her cutlery and looked at me, her own countenance gentle but firm. "Okay. Talk."
I swallowed hard, my dry throat, and went further into the room. I felt like I was ready to leap off a cliff and plunge down. I had gone too far to turn back now.
"I'm sorry, Serena," I told her, the words sounding harsher than I had intended. "I don't know what I was thinking. I've just been so stressed out about all the stuff that's been going on. The business. The drama with… " My voice faltered, but I went on. "I shut you out and that was my mistake. I'm so sorry."
Her eyes were resolute. Unshakeable. But there was something else, something I couldn't read. She did not provide me with the reassurance I was looking for, though. Instead, she shook her head.
"I don't want your apology," she said gently but firmly. "I want to know what actually happened. Why did you lock me out? You've never done that before. You've never shut me out like that and I most certainly haven't seen you as lost as you've been these days ."
The question hit me like a sledgehammer. I had been so concerned about Liana, with the madness that she had brought into my life, that I'd never even given thought to how it was affecting Serena and now here she is, right in front of me simply making demands and seeking an explanation without making a fuss. She was so patient.
"It's her," I finally said, the words weighing like lead in my mouth. "Liana. She showed and she's been causing everything to crash right before my eyes"
Serena's confusion was obvious. "Her? Who?"
I breathed out, the words spilling from me, because there was no longer any need for secrets.
"My ex-wife," I told him, the words bitter on my tongue. " She's clearly out for revenge. She's been acquiring stock in the company, taking over the board, using her influence to manipulate them. I don't want you involved in any of it. I don't want you to understand just how deep it runs. But I was foolish. I pushed you away because I didn't know what to do with all of this. With her."
Serena was standing there, silent for a very long time, her mind calculating the math in what I had just told her. I could tell that she was worried, but nothing more from her. She did not comfort me. She merely drew nearer.
"I… I don't know what to say, Dominic," she quivered with uncertainty.
I came to her, wrapping my hands gently around hers. "Don't say a word," I told her, my own throat constricted with emotion. "I'll fix it. I promise you, I'll fix it. Just. please… Let's just make tonight be about us. Don't even consider all the chaos, not for a minute."
Her eyes went soft, and she nodded. "Okay. Let's make it about us."
With that, we sat down at the table, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I was able to breathe. The dinner was subdued, the muffled clinking of knives and forks and the intermittent glance between us. We didn't say much about the company, about Liana, or anything else. For a moment, it was just us. And it seemed to be enough.
As the wine made its way around and the tension between us began to dissipate, I couldn't help but laugh again, something I hadn't done in what felt like years. It had been a lifetime since we had shared a moment of peace, a moment when nothing wasn't falling apart around us.
With the passage of time, the wine flowed into our veins, and the line between want and comfort got tangled. There was so much left unsaid between us, but its weight no longer mattered.
I got up, holding her close to me, kissing her as if I had not seen her in decades. All at once, my hands were all over her, pulling at her clothes, shoving us together, starving for something that felt like it would endure.
She kissed me back, passionately, her arms wrapping around me like she had not missed me in the slightest. We stumbled to the bedroom, the atmosphere thick with tension between us, and I could only think about the feeling of her skin against mine.
And then we were in bed together, the two of us desperate, needing each other in a way that was close to being animal. The attraction we had was not just physical; it was emotional, raw, a form of plugging whatever had been lost to us.
It wasn't just about the sex. It wasn't about the release. It was about being together again, feeling something real in the midst of all the chaos.
I had no idea what would happen when morning came, or what I would do with Liana and the mess she'd gotten me into. But at this moment, for this moment, all I needed was her. And as we drifted there together, I promised myself that I would fight for this. Fight for us.
She had done too much, and I wasn't going to let her go, no matter what.